Scenes from the aftermath in Oakland:stories of victims, survivors and healers.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

She trimmed her mourning with a thread of hope.

Even though he uses it in a very different context, someday I will borrow this line from the Scottish poet David Constantine to tell the story of Marilyn Harris. Harris lost her only son to the gun in Oakland in 2000, and since has dedicated her life to stepping into the immediate aftermath of homicides here to help families of the killed. She helps them take care of the business of being a survivor, and she helps them begin on the long road to healing. She threads their mourning with hope, just as helping them threads her own continued mourning for her lost son with hope.